After receiving numerous
complaints from constituents about their muni-meter receipts blowing to the
floor or blowing away, the Assemblyman contacted Polly Trottenberg, the newly
appointed Department of Transportation Commissioner, and
asked the D.O.T. to consider more substantial receipts. Thicker paper is utilized
in other countries such as Israel where muni-meters abound.

“Our office has received calls
from a number of constituents who complain that they have received parking summonses
even after having properly purchased and displayed a muni-meter receipt on
their dashboard,” said Assemblyman Hikind. “Upon inspection, they discovered
that their receipts had either flipped over or had been blown to the floor.
This likely occurred when they closed their car door. The problem is even worse
during times of heavy wind.”

The problem, Assemblyman Hikind
explains, is the flimsiness of the actual receipts, which are printed on very
thin paper.

“It is a shame to penalize people
who are attempting to follow the rules and regulations,” said Hikind. “The addition
of muni-meters has been helpful. They’ve added numerous potential parking
spaces in our community and in other neighborhoods. But there is always room
for improvement and improving this situation seems easy.”

Assemblyman Hikind shows the difference between the
thin NYC muni-meter receipts and the thicker Israeli ones.

Assemblyman Hikind discusses the flimsiness of muni-meter receipts with a constituent.